Chronos was stunned.
All the time he'd spent walking through the timestream—no one had ever done what Saitama just did: confront him head-on, then slip behind him and unleash a whole string of attacks.
Up above, the Waverider had only just managed to track the heroes down. What the crew saw when they arrived was Saitama once again steamrolling an opponent.
So they didn't really take this "Chronos" guy seriously.
The only one who knew how dangerous Chronos truly was… was Rip Hunter.
Back in the future, he had served on the Time Council. He knew exactly what kind of monster Chronos was.
And Chronos himself was just as shocked.
As a time hunter who walked within the flow of time, his armor carried "absolute defense." In terms of sheer defensive rating, Chronos' suit was tougher than the time ship Waverider itself.
That was the level of technology controlled by the transcendent existences of the DC timeline—the Time Council.
You could say that Saitama had just hit three fully-shielded Waveriders head-on… and still kicked Chronos back three steps.
If you put that on the Waverider, it meant Saitama's one kick could knock the DC world's pinnacle of high-tech, shields fully raised, clean off its normal flight trajectory.
Chronos was rattled.
"This guy is insane!"
Still, he refused to accept it.
He drew his treasured gun.
His rules for using this weapon were simple: he only used it on two kinds of people—those too weak to be worth any effort… and those so strong they deserved his best shot.
Because this gun could erase someone from the timestream completely.
The weak weren't worth wasting it on. But a powerhouse like Saitama was worthy of his strongest attack.
Click.
Chronos chambered a round in his time-erasure beam gun… and fired at Saitama.
Saitama dodged. The shot slammed into a Saint Stanch University building.
The building vanished on the spot—disintegrating into dust-fine particles, scattering in front of everyone's eyes.
Shock.
Everyone was stunned again.
Just what kind of power did this gun have?!
"My god," Professor Martin breathed. "That gun is too strong! It directly pulverized that building at the atomic level!"
Jefferson nodded grimly. "Yeah, old man. This opponent is terrifying."
Captain Cold frowned. "You two aren't exaggerating, are you? You're telling me that kind of particle gun can erase matter all the way down to the atomic level?"
As he spoke, Captain Cold raised his cold gun and fired at Chronos.
Chronos didn't even bother looking. He simply fired a shot to meet it.
In a flash, the round from Captain Cold's gun was erased mid-air. The time-erasure beam kept going, nearly hitting him—Jefferson barely managed to shove him out of the way.
Behind Captain Cold, another building vanished under the beam, disappearing from everyone's sight.
"Sweet hell!" Captain Cold gasped. "What kind of attack is this?!"
Heat Wave Mick growled, "Snart, get back. I don't buy into this crap."
He raised his flamethrower and blasted a stream of fire at Chronos.
Once again, Chronos casually answered with a beam of time-erasure light.
"Watch out, Mick!" Captain Cold shouted.
When he saw Mick about to be hit, he tackled him out of the way. The cold gun on his belt was struck instead… and vanished into nothing.
He'd lost his ability to fight.
Everyone was beyond words now.
"Everyone fall back!" Rip Hunter yelled.
Saitama stepped forward to block Chronos. "I'm not letting you hurt them."
Chronos clanked forward a few steps in his armor. "We'll see if you have what it takes."
As he spoke, Chronos' energy level spiked.
A terrifying force poured off his entire body.
At this point in the timeline, there simply shouldn't have been anyone who could reach this power.
His power had already surpassed the atomic level—stepping into a trans-atomic tier.
Boom.
As Chronos charged, his body left afterimages in the air.
He kept firing beam after beam of erasing light at Saitama without pause.
Under this dense, complex barrage, Saitama felt like he had finally met an enemy unlike any he'd faced before.
Don't be fooled just because Chronos was "only" a time hunter in black armor like some sci-fi "Dark Knight"—the power he was showing now far surpassed Damien Darhk in Saitama's mind.
"Relying purely on technology… and it actually surpasses magic?" Saitama muttered.
He fought Chronos while flickering around the field.
He had to dodge the time-erasure beams on one hand, and on the other, he had to be extremely careful not to let the attacks hit anyone nearby.
This was a famous American university. If someone in that crowd had a genius-level mind and, in the future, made some epoch-making discovery… one stray beam could change the timeline all over again.
The two of them fought as they moved, trading blows and dodges.
They battled all the way to the university's main athletic field.
There, some students had been playing basketball. When they saw two buildings vanish into thin air, they screamed in panic.
Then they saw the two causes of this disaster crash down onto their basketball court. Believing that staying at a distance made them safe, they actually ducked behind cover and peeked out to secretly watch.
The Waverider's heroes immediately fanned out to evacuate them, then turned their full attention to Saitama and Chronos.
Especially the blonde, brown-eyed beauty, Sara Lance. "Saitama, every time you fight you show a level of power that shocks me. I keep being stunned by how strong you are… so just how strong are you, really?"
There was a depth in her gaze now—something you couldn't see the bottom of.
Rip Hunter, seeing the situation, could only order some people to carry the wounded back to the Waverider. Then he had Gideon project a containment barrier over the court so the battle's shockwaves wouldn't spread beyond the field.
Aboard the Waverider, the AI spoke.
"Captain Rip," Gideon said, "doing this will consume a great deal of energy. Afterward, we won't be able to perform any large time jumps. We may have to drift in the timestream and remain anchored in this period for a while."
Rip Hunter drew a deep breath. "Do it anyway."
He understood very clearly—
If Saitama couldn't defeat Chronos here, the time hunter would just continue to chase them along the timeline and eventually kill them all.
With the strength they had right now, they had no chance of beating Chronos.
"Damn it," Rip snarled under his breath. "Where did those Time Council bastards dig up someone this strong…?"
Down on the 1975 Saint Stanch University athletic field, under the blazing midday sun, all the heroes could see… were two overlapping silhouettes clashing in mid-air.
(End of Chapter)
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